A Gaming Veteran on the VR Market and ‘Crunch Culture’

A marketing image of people playing Resolution’s Demeo game. Image: Resolution Games

Tommy Palm, co-founder and CEO of Sweden’s Resolution Games, got his start coding games in the 1980s. Before starting Resolution, he built two other studios, one of which was acquired by mobile game developer King in 2012. There, Palm helped create Candy Crush Saga, a hit puzzle game that soon attracted millions of players and brought in mountains of revenue.

Resolution focuses on VR and AR development and has released 14 games over the past six years, making it one of the most prolific studios in the market. Its most recent VR launch, a Dungeons and Dragons-inspired role-playing game called Demeo, is a point of pride for Palm, who took to Twitter over the weekend to share word of its success: Within the two days, Demeo became Resolution’s best-reviewed title and generated over half a million dollars in revenue.

Palm sees the strong launch as a sign of newfound maturity for VR gaming. I spoke with Palm about growth in the VR market, the steps Resolution takes to support its developers and how the studio decides when a game should go cross-platform.